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Thursday, November 20, 2014

BSL Is Disappearing

Revised: November 21, 2014; 05:36 GMT

Two recent news stories have bolstered the claims that Breed Specific Legislation is disappearing. These stories have been widely circulated in the pit bull blogosphere and have raised the hopes of advocates in the run-up to a critical meeting in Kansas City.

The Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City will meet on December 4th to decide whether to reverse their decades old ban. The proposed animal control ordinance sailed through the Public Works & Safety committee on Nov 17.

The two articles which claim bans are disappearing appeared in quick succession, and there are likely more to come. The tri-state area has a powerful advocacy movement and it seems implausible that the articles could have been written without outreach from pit bull advocates.

Among the advocates mentioned in the articles are Bernie Toellner and Katie Bray Barnett. In 2010 Ms Barnett worked to revoke the ban in her home town of Topeka. And, no surprise, she also assisted in writing the new animal ordinance. Within two years, about the time it takes for an un-neutered male pit bull to fully mature, two year old Samantha Mae Edwards was killed in a Topeka suburb by a pit bull adopted under Ms Barnett's new regulations.

Samantha Mae Edwards, d. December 13, 2012

Commissioner Jane Winkler Philbrook proposed the new legislation, and it's fair to say that advocacy outreach is also behind her proposal. Ms Bray, Mr Toellner, and Melanie Coy would like nothing more than to convince us that BSL is a thing of the past. The authors of the "BSL is disappearing" stories adhered to advocacy talking points; had they looked further they would have found a long list of cities that recently defied the advocates and retained their BSL (see below).

The advocates know that their best chance of revoking BSL is to gain access to legislators; it may be their only chance. After years of complaints and protests by pit bull advocates the Aurora city council put the matter to a vote.

Advocates for pet, livestock, and human safety in Aurora, Colorado claimed a resounding win with the November 4, 2014 defeat of a well-funded attempt to repeal the nine-year-old Aurora pit bull bylaw.1

It was a crushing defeat for the advocacy movement; by an overwhelming 2-1 majority Aurora citizens said they do not want to live next door to a pit bull. The same is true of the citizens in the Heart of America.

KALB News Channel 5; Moreauville, LAOn October 13, the village passed an ordinance that states if you own a pit bull or a Rottweiler, you must get rid of it by December 1 or they will take it for "disposition."

Statistics quoted on SRUV are from the nation's authoritative source for current dog attack statistics, the 30+ year, continuously updated Dog attack deaths and maimings, U.S. & Canada.View or download the current PDF